My Joy

There is no joy in the Russian film My Joy, which serves up an insidiously dark portrait of an innocent young truck driver named Georgy (Viktor Nemets), who takes a detour in the middle of nowhere across a so-called cursed road and winds up trapped in a village. While it's neither a horror film (in any traditional sense), nor a social realism portrait of hard times in post-Soviet Russia, both of these strands are apparent in this mesmerizing (and beautifully shot) journey that takes Georgy into a coldly vicious world of thieves, bullies, opportunists, and murderers who prey upon anyone who shows the slightest vulnerability. Unfortunately, Georgy is an easy victim for everyone he meets along the way in director Sergei Loznitsa's film, which features a wicked sense of black humor running under the matter-of-fact cruelty and corruption on display. The filmmaker builds this nightmarish social satire through tangled narrative strands, flashbacks, and a bit of surrealism. A dark and violent film that deals with unsavory behavior of all kinds, My Joy is not for everyone, but more adventurous viewers with a taste for daring and offbeat filmmaking will appreciate it. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)